A copy of the letter to the new general manager recently appointed to manage our institution for the elderly. He expressed concern for the spread of the coronavirus and suggested that it is mandatory for the unvaccinated to wear masks.

My letter follows:-

I note your concern and advice about the wearing of masks and the need for isolation. I have not had the vaccination and don't intend to have it either. The NHS rates me as high risk owing to many encounters with what was deemed to be terminal cancer 20 years ago. I am in excellent health and have no intention of risking adverse reactions arising from the vaccine. 

I am a pharmacist, and I deregistered after 50 years of active participation. I find the global reaction to COVID implausible. After all, what is the point of being vaccinated if it is to fear the presence of the unvaccinated? Both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated carry the active virus on their person to the same extent. The virus is inactivated only when it enters the bloodstream and encounters the body's defence mechanism. It follows then; even a vaccinated person can be teeming with the virus within their throat and nasal passages just waiting for expulsion. The same is true for any other viral or bacterial infection, whether influenza or a common cold.

The current hype or extravagant and intensive reaction concerning COVID is beyond all reason. In Britain, mad cow disease reached its peak in 1993, with almost 1,000 new cases being reported every week. Since then, little has emerged while most young people of influential age today were born around 1990, are 30 years of age and have been through university.

Current young policymakers and reporters are unaware of life before 1960 when we had to contend with poliomyelitis, measles, mumps and many other diseases. Currently, the coronavirus kills around 0.5 per cent of the people it infects; it is probably minuscule within the global population. In the 20th century alone, smallpox killed hundreds of millions of people before its gradual eradication.

The world reaction to the coronavirus is extreme and ignorant. It has probably caused more chaos than necessary and permanent damage to humankind's superstructure. This strategic structure is the central or most important element of human existence. It has become so large that a tipping point is inevitable, and it has probably reached a rational limit to increase further.

 On Saturday 30th October 2021, on the eve of the COP 26 global meeting, all cathedrals and churches within the UK  are to sound their bells for 30 minutes to ring out a warning to humanity, drawing attention to the climate catastrophe ahead. 

COP26 is the 2021 United Nations climate change conference. The UN has brought almost every country on earth together for global climate summits, and it stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’. Climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority.

Our local church has sounded the bells somewhat early. As I sit and listen to them, I am moved and filled with sadness—great towering thunder clouds beyond drift by interspaced with blue sky. The clean, fresh autumn breeze flushes my space, and I wonder how we could have arrived at a situation of this nature.

A short article written by a farmer in our local village newsletter reflects the state of the world. 

He comments that fertilizer for next years planting should have been delivered in June, five months ago. Currently, there is no sign of it, and it is unlikely to arrive any time soon.  It is apparently in the country, but there are no truck drivers to deliver it.

There is no Roundup in the country until next year. This herbicide is essential for autumn planting. It is used to kill weeds before the cereals are planted. The number of cultivations on the fields can be reduced using less selective but expensive herbicides.

Rape meal,  the residue after the oilseed has been crushed, is used as cattle feed, last weeks order has not arrived, and we have a day worth left.

Feed supplements that are imported are not available until November, so their use is limited. The price had doubled in 12 months. By reducing this, the fat levels in the milk have dropped. Combine this with poor quality first cut hay, and milk production has been reduced.

Staffing is a problem. It is a mix of lethargy, physical and demanding, long hours; it is hard to find willing workers.

 After 86 years, I cannot help reflecting on the past and how different it was. I must nevertheless hesitate and take note of everything going on in the world around me. 

Before 1963 when American medical researcher Dr Jonas Salk announced that he had successfully developed a poliomyelitis vaccine, we mostly disregarded the threat of infection and continued with life as usual.

The MMR vaccine was announced in the USA in 1963, and I was 28 years old. Published measles cases in the United States fell from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands per year. These illnesses were regarded as a fact of life; before that, we stayed in bed until we recovered.

Now we have COVID, and it is regarded to be a pandemic because its effect is widespread. The pandemic is reported to have negatively affected many people’s mental health. It is worth considering that measles affects about 20 million people worldwide a year. In 1980, 2.6 million people died of measles, and in 1990, 545,000 died. (Wikipedia)

One cannot help wondering if this pandemic is a self-inflicted wound driven by opportunity and profit. It has become manifest that more than a third of 26 significant trials of Ivermectin for use on Covid has serious errors or signs of potential fraud. (BBC News)

Wednesday 06

Having had a week of disagreeable weather, Myrtle and I decided to take an early morning walk into the pastures surrounding our home. The days throughout the past week have been dark, cold and wet. A few days ago, I was shocked to see that our barometric pressure was the lowest I had ever seen, 980 hPa.

Our morning today was a clear sky, cold and dry. We felt invigorated; a few high altitude clouds formed a pattern seldom seen. We aim to walk at least one mile every day, but we decided to continue being such an exhilarating day. Despite our season being well into Autumn, the vegetation is still lush and green.

We were excited to see a butterfly, and it evoked thoughts of how few insects we encounter when on walks. Beautiful scenery, enormous fields with straight rows of growing crops and a tiny train passing in the distance. It reminded me of pictures in the encyclopedias I had in my youth.

Marcus Aurelius inspired me. We don't control the world around us; we only control how we respond; he is a student of stoicism and the last of the five good Roman emperors. It was good to be alive on a day like this. It is good to embrace adversity, to challenge ourselves, as Seneca said, stay in the present, stay in reality. Our big mistake is to think that we anticipate death, but most of the death has already passed; time passed is owned by death. Death is not something that lies ahead of us. In the uncertain future, we die each day, and the past is irrecoverable. We returned home, exhausted.

A Call to Alms.

It is a weird sentiment to quietly reflect upon the probable destiny of life on this planet. For decades, scientists have warned of impending doom. Given the current human population, it is not surprising that the rapidly intensifying changes are now evident.

It has taken 200 years for the global population to grow from a little more than one billion to the present estimate of 7.8 billion in January 2021.

As a species, we persistently desecrate our irreplaceable home. In contrast, we search for an alternative world that may only benefit the privileged few. 

There is no question; our kind is unique and not part of the fundamental and natural biological diversity purposed for this planet. We are no less alien; having deviated from the norm, we have extended ourselves beyond comprehension. With our superior brain mastery, we consistently and mindlessly besmirch our most incredible legacy to the point of extinction. 

Humans are entirely dependent on the diversity of living matter. Everything is co-dependent. By invading ecosystems, a million species are nearing global extinction. The globe faces a future of hunger, malnutrition, mass unemployment, a refugee crisis and ever more calamitous pandemics.

In pursuing wealth, ignorance and self-interest, counter-action is viewed as too costly to be viable. The mainstream is having difficulty grasping the significance, notwithstanding the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilisation,

It is doubtful that entrepreneurs will make any economic modification of sufficient scale in time to save humankind. Having exhausted the soil and the sea to feed the growing population, we lack the resources to invade or seek an alternative source.  

All that is left for us now is to return to the fundamentals of our creation. Love and take care of one another, as it was in the beginning and ever should be!  

Walking past the kitchen waste dump

 Walking past the kitchen waste dump at St. John's in Heytesbury, I noticed a few large white discarded potatoes. A few days later, the potatoes were joined by a few brown eggs. 

I gathered up the potatoes and found them to be perfect, better than I usually buy. The eggs, I was a bit suspicious and left them to someone else. It is not my intention to condemn anyone, but the event struck me as an incident of concern. The probability is that potatoes, in fact, all food, will become more precious than gold

A recent meeting of the IPCC reported that the planet is now warmer than it has been in 125,000 years and scientists concluded that we face a dreadful future. Human-generated greenhouse gases are, without a doubt driving the extreme weather conditions.   

In addition, the crisis we must now confront is the growth of the human population and the loss of plants and animals. The planet faces a future of hunger, malnutrition, mass unemployment, a refugee crisis and ever more calamitous pandemics.

Mainstream media is having difficulty grasping the overall magnitude of the situation. The problem is compounded by ignorance and short-term self-interest. The pursuit of wealth and political interests hinders the crucial action for survival. 

It is universally believed that a pragmatic makeover would be unworkable and costly. Disinformation to protect economic activity to a sufficient scale will no doubt will be made in defence.

Millions are starving, and billions are malnourished. Population growth sparks both internal and international conflict. It, in turn, is exacerbated by climate change driven by an ever-higher global average temperature.

Recognising that many readers of this publication are tired of religion, I will try to adhere to a more realistic and robust approach to the need for communal gathering and worship. Local churches in the past served in much the same way as the internet does today. The priest would gather information and pass on techniques and skills as members shared them. 

Food supply is not guaranteed, and seeds will be scarce. Survival and not money will be the issue of the day. For peace and comfort, resident clergy will need to monitor needs and keep records of vulnerable people. It will need stoic and robust leaders; remember, Western civilisation has its roots in church life and its scriptural admonitions.

 I had a great day yesterday. I spent the day childminding for John and Liza. Most of the day, I spent lazing in the sun. The sky was interspersed with massive white cumulonimbus clouds floating within a clear blue sky. I so enjoy watching those huge, towering clouds. I must have spent two hours in full sun; I am surprised how little I got sunburnt, just turned brown.

A chicken roving for titbits on the lawn made me think of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of the American soldiers. A shocking episode and disrespect for life followed their departure. As the chicken stabbed at the occasional insect, I wondered what life was worth anyway. I acknowledge that evolution in its wisdom provided for the restraint and control of living matter by benefitting the next level on the food chain. 

Owing to our advanced and acquired skills, we humans have divorced ourselves from natural biological diversity. Upon this planet, we are nothing else but aliens intent upon mindless self-destruction and at the same time having nowhere else to go. 

The United Nations body for assessing climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reported that the Earth is warmer than in 125,000 years. Human-generated greenhouse gases are without a doubt driving extreme weather conditions, but nations, they claim, can still prevent the worst impacts. 

I wonder if this claim could be valid. We, humans, are entirely dependent upon the diversity of living matter for our food. Everything is co-dependent and may take aeons for the natural world to adapt to the rapid change demanded. A flooded or exhausted soil cannot be expected to produce food in quantities needed to feed the world population today.

Could this rapid change in the environment and unintelligent human behaviour be part of a natural destiny for the planet?